Today Avid released Pro Tools 2024.3, the first Pro Tools release of the year. It introduces several significant enhancements for both music and audio post:

• MIDI effect plugins and enhanced signal flow

• MIDI copy/paste between Pro Tools and Sibelius

• Sketch updates

• Detachable tabs for Melodyne and Clip Effects

• Internal custom Dolby Atmos live re-renders

• macOS 14.3 Sonoma support

• Scripting SDK updates

In terms of new features the headline here is new methods of MIDI routing and the introduction of AAX MIDI plugins. For post and music professionals working in Dolby Atmos the inclusion of additional re-render options in the integrated renderer address a key reason some users have stayed with the external renderer.

MIDI Chain

The new Pro Tools MIDI signal flow lets MIDI move easily between plugins on a single track, within the same track, between tracks, and between plugins.

Previously the options available in the Instrument section of the track header or mixer channel of an Instrument track, where MIDI input and output assignments are made, offered only the available MIDI inputs and outputs. There is now the option of routing to ‘Chain In’ and by doing so the MIDI data, rather than being routed directly to a virtual instrument, is instead made available to flow through the newly introduced MIDI effect plugins which precede the VI in the insert slots.

Chain Mode allows the use of a range of different MIDI plugins, all on the same instrument. In terms of potential workflow applications there is more flexibility available, for example it simplifies the use of separate tracks for hosting articulation and keyswitch data for orchestral VIs, useful for refining performances and tidier when copying to notation software such as Sibelius.

MIDI Chain is analogous to an internal bus for MIDI and like audio busses it can be used to route MIDI from an Instrument track to a MIDI track, so for example if you want to record the the output of a series of MIDI plugins as MIDI, MIDI Chain  can do that. For example capturing the MIDI output of an arpeggiator.

MIDI Effects

Similar to audio plugins currently in Pro Tools, MIDI plugins are inserted in Instrument channels to process or generate MIDI data. Until now MIDI Effects have been notably absent from Pro Tools. MIDI Real Time Properties have offered real time processing of MIDI data and the ability to quantize and transpose, and to adjust velocity and duration of the track’s MIDI covers some of the same ground as the trio of ‘in-house’ AAX MIDI plugins available in this release. Focused on utility, these Avid MIDI plugins - Note Stack, Pitch Control and Velocity Control overlap with what Real Time Properties can do, but the fact that they are plugins opens up new creative possibilities where this overlap exists and extends it further.

The fact that you can automate MIDI plugins means that where MIDI Real Time Properties could be applied at the track level or, if changes along the timeline were desired Clip-based Real Time Properties could be applied, the MIDI plugin workflow means that processing is truly real time in the way we would recognise it from audio plugins. The processing applied by Clip-based real time MIDI properties, while performed in real time and non-destructive, is more like an MIDI version of AudioSuite.

The three ‘in house’ MIDI plugins are:

Note Stack - Trigger multiple notes by playing a single MIDI key

Velocity Control - Block, permit and modify the Velocity of incoming notes based on the values of (Velocity, Pitch)

Pitch Control - Transpose the Pitch of incoming notes based on the values of (Velocity, Pitch)

These three MIDI plugins are available to all tiers of Pro Tools including Intro.

The three paid tiers of Pro Tools (Ultimate, Studio and Artist) also benefit from three 3rd-party MIDI plugins which are more generative in nature and focus on ideas creation.

Modalics EON-Arp - An arpeggiator that gives you rhythmic and melodic control to shape intricate, & highly musical phrases easily

Audiomodern Riffer 3 - Generates musical Riffs & Sequences by combining Pitch, Duration, Velocity & Density

Pitch Innovations Groove Shaper - Sequencer to generate rhythms for Hi-hats, Bass, String motifs and more

MIDI copy/paste between Pro Tools and Sibelius

Pro Tools and Sibelius are both Avid products and the availability to freely copy and paste between the two titles will be a welcome addition to anyone working on projects using both products. Mockups are more important than ever and with the ever-improving quality of virtual instruments, the ability to freely incorporate changes from the Pro Tools project to the Sibelius score and vice versa is only going to become more important. 

You can copy MIDI from Pro Tools into the clipboard and then paste into Sibelius with all relevant MIDI information including notes, pitch, note duration, timing/position in clip, and continuous controller data across the clip(s). From Sibelius you can copy a passage selection or entire conductor track in Sibelius with all relevant data and paste directly into Pro Tools

Updates To Sketch Window & iPad App 

There have been several refinements introduced to the operation of Pro Tools Sketch. Specifically:

In the Sketch Window in Pro Tools:

• Improved drag and drop between the Sketch Window and the Pro Tools Edit Window, including Mixer settings when dragging from Sketch into Pro Tools and Render MIDI as audio from Pro Tools to a Sketch audio track

• The ability to Auto-Pin a Sketch document when saving into a Pro Tools Session folder

New In the Sketch iPad App

• A Count off is now available when recording audio and MIDI clips

• When logged into their account, users can download 500MB of bonus content from Loopmasters.

Detachable Tabs

In Pro Tools 2022.9 the Edit Window was reorganised and the newly introduced ARA editor for Melodyne was added to the bottom of the Edit Window, an area previously populated by the Docked MIDI Editor. As part of that change the Clip Effects were moved from the top of the Edit Window, an area they shared with the Universe Window, to the bottom giving an area where three tabs could display MIDI, Clip Effects and ARA Melodyne. There has always been a floating counterpart to the Docked MIDI Editor and in Pro Tools 2024.3 the ARA Melodyne Editor and the Clip Effects window have gained the ability to be detached from the docked position and float. Clicking on the top right corner of the tab will pop out the tab to a floating window and this will be very welcome for people who use Melodyne a lot as they will be able to move that window out to a second monitor. The position of detached tabs is saved with the Session.

Although Melodyne is the only software currently available using ARA 2 in Pro Tools, subsequent additions like RX, RePitch and VocAlign which have all been shown at technology previews by Avid will share this detachable Tab feature. 

Dolby Atmos Improvements

The introduction of an integrated Dolby Atmos Renderer in Pro Tools has greatly simplified Atmos workflows and session setup but one of the features which was limited compared to using the external Renderer is setting up live re-renders. Previously limited to Headphone (Binaural or 2.0) and Loudness (5.1 or 2.0), users can now create custom re-renders (5.1, 7.1, etc.) that can be sent back to the input of tracks in Pro Tools and monitored in real-time. 

The re-render content can be filtered by group content, such as music or effects. These features enable Dolby Atmos Music to be monitored using the AudioMovers and Embody Apple Binaural plugins on a 7.1.4 mix and users can now apply a limiter before printing the stem.

Tier Differences And Availability

Pro Tools 2024.3 is available now via users’ Avid accounts. Artist and Intro users can’t access Atmos features and Intro users don’t receive the third party MIDI plugins.